PC Specialist Enigma Pro (i3-8100 w/ GTX 1070)

On booting the system, we go straight for the details, particularly to see how the Core-i3 8100 presents itself. As you can see, this 65W processor is clocked and locked at 3.6GHz, doesn’t boost and doesn’t support hyper-threading. Yet it is a quad-core Core-i3, something we’re quite excited about.

The GTX 1070 we have in the system is from Zotac, although supply can dictate the brand. Nonetheless, any GTX 1070 should simply excel at 1080p, even at the 1070 base specs of 1506MHz and 1683MHz (boost) respectfully. In terms of storage space, we needn’t be concerned. Even with a slew of benchmarking software and games installed, we were left with around 800GB of free space. That should be plenty for most gamers.

 Comparison systems

The Core-i3 8100 is a direct competitor to the Ryzen 3 range and specifically the Ryzen 3 1300X. We’ve yet to see a Ryzen 3 1300X-based system so we’ve little to directly compare to. Instead, we’ll primarily focus on performance for price and the gains Coffee Lake is offering.

Test Software

• SiSoft Sandra
• Cinebench R15
• CrystalDiskMark
• 3DMark
• VRMark
• GPU-Z
• AIDA64 Extreme

Test Games

• Ashes of the singularity
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Rise of the Tomb Raider